Ready for the List? Here’s 50+ Jobs for Former Teachers

Here’s my mega list of jobs for former teachers based on your subject level and what you love (or didn’t love!) about teaching.

Please keep in mind that this is not a list of jobs that are totally easy and fast to get.

This is only a list of brainstorming ideas to help you see the possibilities for your skills and your background.

Some of these ideas require new education, which might be the last thing you want to do when you’ve dropped thousands of dollars to get the degree you have now. But other jobs on this list? They just require a passion, creativity, and persistence.

For more information about rewriting your resume to get these jobs and tackling awkward conversations within your interview, download the guide.

The best part? This list is NOT comprehensive! There are so many kinds of jobs in the world that — as teachers working in a non-profit industry — we don’t even know exist. Don’t limit yourself to your personal experience. Step outside your comfort zone and consider all the different kinds of careers that exist when you consider all of the skills you have.

About Sarah G

Sarah Greesonbach is the founder of Life After Teaching. She believes that teachers are the most talented, versatile, and valuable employees you could hire. She taught high school English for three years before transitioning into writing, editing, and marketing. Her career advice appears on Simply Hired, AOL Jobs, and YAHOO! Small Business.

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Comments

Great post, but my question is where do you find some of these jobs? I currently teach history in a smaller private school and lets just say it isn’t the greatest. My problem is finding jobs that go with my skill set. A lot of the jobs listed under the history section in my area at least are mostly volunteer positions. I also am not interested in college since I think it would be more of the same. Is there anywhere that talks about what teachers are qualified for? Also I keep hearing people tell me “look at HR or corporate training” Is this actually true? I think these places would rather take people with degrees in HR or business rather than some teacher. I guess what i’m worried about is whether i’m really qualified for any other decent job or if its teaching or being stuck working at a McDonalds.

Hi Ben, I hear you – I really do. But the most dangerous side effect of teaching is that it makes you feel to your bones that “this is all you’re qualified for and there’s no way out.” It makes it easy to be skeptical and wary of different types of jobs because we have it so ingrained in us that we’re safer staying put and putting up with the abuse.

We can all agree that it’s important to be practical and realistic when you consider making a job change…. BUT. It’s also important to make decisions from a place of power, not of fear. I encourage you to skip over the “What am I qualified for?” question (as if your qualifications decide what you should do for the rest of your life rather than your desire to get new qualifications) and focus on what you WANT to do.

Did any of those positions jump out at you? Even the volunteer ones? Because when you feed the part of your brain that really, really WANTS something (As opposed to the part saying “Get me out of here, to anything!”), you’d be amazing how quickly a path can form that will help you do it.

(Note: I’m not saying it will be easy or it won’t be scary, but I do believe that “where there’s a will, there’s a way”). I forget who first said it, but “The world will get out of the way of a man on a mission”. Figure out what you love about teaching and what you hate about teaching and find a career that drivers closer to the former and away from the latter, then see what qualifications you have that can get you there.

My favorite analogy to finding a career is much like finding a spouse — you don’t know where the perfect one is or what they look like. You just have to follow your heart with what you love and what you do and put yourself out there to come across it. You might get lucky and find it right away — or you might have to join clubs, network, volunteer, and try new things as you make your way closer to the end goal. And patience is always rewarded!

Hi Lana – Thank you for your comment! While I think it’s fair to say that companies might not want to hire the skills of a high school art teacher… I do strongly believe that companies want to hire people who love art and applying art to the business world! Your job outside teaching might not look exactly how you think it will, but I do think there is a place for someone with your skills. I hope you’ll stay strong and keep looking!

Same here for a special ed teacher with a Masters degree. What else can I do when I do t want to work with this population anymore? It’s not as easy when you are in this position or elementary education. Without another degree, I’m afraid I can’t even match my salary as a teacher in her 10th year. And yes, where does one find these positions that are supposedly easy to find???

Hi Joy! There are many ways to use a degree in special education without being in the classroom. I’ll make a note to add a post about this, but I recently met a former teacher and mother of a special education student who provides 1:1 counseling with families to help them navigate the education system and IEPs. With a little research and coaching from free online blogs, you could also write about special education issues for newspapers or educational journals. I’ll update here with a link when I write this new post!

I would like to know as well. I am currently in my 7th year of special education and I am burned out, mentally and physically. I have my masters in special education and I am having a VERY DIFFICULT time find another profession… please help

Hi Sharon – Thank you for your comment! As an elementary teacher, you have a wide range of knowledge on a number of different subjects. This means your career path isn’t as clear as someone who specialized in a subject, but you still have valuable knowledge. I will have to work up a post specifically for elementary school teachers and link to it here!

Hi John, a background in technology and industrial arts strikes me as uniquely marketable experience! Do you have an alma mater? Colleges often have a career center that is free for alumni. They should be able to get you started with actionable ideas and job titles for people with your background. You can also look up technology-specific jobs at https://www.onetonline.org/.

I’m so sorry to hear about your assault experience! I had a few similar things happen to me (a rock thrown at the back of my head on lunch duty, a kid with a grudge bringing a knife on a day I happened to be absent), so I mean it when I say I am with you on this! I’ll email you shortly…

I’ve been following your blog now for a few months and I have a question regarding the skill set needed for say an Instructional Designer position. I have been watching LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Indeed job sites for job openings and many of those jobs under IDS say things like Captivate, Wimba, iSpring, LAMS among a host of other Learning Management Systems are necessary to perform designated job duties. How does one become proficient in these software systems that are prohibitively expensive?

Having conducted a few informational interviews with trainers and designers, they all say get the ATD (formerly ASTD) certification (also very expensive). Does one really have to spend money on either training or certification to become a skilled Instructional Designer? I spent a bit on my Masters and don’t want to set myself back any further. As a long-time EFL teacher ready to bring the family back home, any advice on building a portfolio or updating the résumé would be helpful as well.

Thanks for your time Sarah and I hope that my question helps others looking for similar answers!

Thanks so much for stopping by with a comment! Like all things career, the answer to your awesome question is complicated and takes a little gambling. Here’s how I see it:

1 – An advanced degree will almost always help you get an interview and then possibly get the job. A degree or certification not only indicates knowledge and experience, but it also indicates commitment. That allows hiring managers feel safe knowing you’re a professional.

2 – HOWEVER, an advanced degree is not the only way to establish knowledge, experience, and commitment! It’s just the easiest, and that’s why it’s so expensive (It can be done good, fast, or or cheap, but you only get to pick two, right?). I deeply believe that anyone can put together a self-education path using free and low-cost resources online that will establish them as a professional in a given field. (See also: The Personal MBA at http://personalmba.com/manifesto/).

For the example of ISD, you’re absolutely correct that the technologies are prohibitively expensive. But there are a few workarounds to get *some* experience on your resume: each of the platforms offers a free trial, so you could download one per month over the summer with a book from the library and throw yourself into creating sample lessons and learning experiences (a spec portfolio) (you could also time the trial for when you have an interview so that you could custom create a learning experience for the company you interview for).

You could also get in touch with a nearby library or college library and see what technology they offer (for free) on their onsite computers (AKA the local library where I live has a digital media lab with a 3D printer and other crazy things I don’t even know about). So… it’s definitely not easy, but it’s doable if you wanted to hack it.

3 – You may not qualify for a job at a company that prefers the creme de la creme experts with advanced degrees, but that’s fine because you don’ t need a job there, you just need a job to get your foot in the door. When you’re taking the self-educated path, I would focus on smaller businesses like start-ups that want the skills but can’t pay big bucks for the education and experience. They’ll be more likely to 1) not care that your degree is in something related but not specific, or 2) that you created your portfolio on spec (they just want to see your work).

4 – Think about it in terms of what people want to see in a job candidate. Self-education and hard work may not be as sexy to some hiring managers as an advanced degree, but it is darn attractive to most realistic ones! A genuine, hard-working person who is committed to ISD and can explain how his teaching career lead him to realize that he was meant to be an ISD (with a great self-made portfolio) would definitely have sway.

I have it on good authority from a director of HR friend that a self-educated candidate who put the time into building the portfolio and could demonstrate those skills in an interview would be an attractive candidate for a job.

I hope this helps, Terry! The #1 thing is to be persistent once you know what you want. I will be the first to admit it’s difficult and frustrating, but “the world will get out of the way for a man on a mission!”

Okay, some of the jobs you suggested require just more than a background in teaching to get. For science teachers your suggestions include veterinarian and college professor. You need advanced degrees for these positions. A Natural Resource Manager needs years of experience in the field before they get that job. I think most of the teachers who are going to this site are desperate to find a transition job from teaching to a desired career. The problem with getting these jobs is that a teacher’s skills and knowledge tend to be generalized while employers seem to be looking for specialized skills. This makes it hard to compete against people with experience in the field or recent graduates in the field. If you apply for entry-level positions to get experience you run into the overqualified problem.
It would be nice if there was a network of former teachers who became established in other fields to offer advice on teachers seeking a career change. My recommendation to teachers is to get specific training in a career field via summer courses or night courses before you leave your current job. Also, volunteer to lead some workshops or lead a school committee. Training and supervisory positions often want to see that you worked with adults not just kids.

Hi Sarah,
Thankyou for writing a great post. I’m a middle school math teacher since 15th August 2015. Before that I worked at a management consultancy firm in 2008 but quit from there after a year. Now I feel that I don’t have a life as a teacher. I feel drained and strained both physically and mentally. I would like to change my job and go back to working in an office. Can you please tell me of some affordable or free professional development courses that will teach me about compensation and benefits. I am a math teacher and like working with numbers and doing analysis. Feel free to suggest some more options.
Thankyou.

Hi there. I teach in St. Louis, MO. This is my 6th year in education. I have a bachelor degree in early childhood education and a master degree in special education. I taught 3rd grade for five years. I’m currently teaching 2nd grade. I’m in school now for my master plus 30 to get a certificate to become a reading specialist. I have thought of leaving education as well, or at least staying in the field but leaving the classroom. Any suggestions? I am not happy where I am at the moment. The district that I’m in, in my opinion, is unorganized and I’m not getting help with the behaviors. I feel that I Can do a lot more if I were out of the classroom. I love what I do, but feel that I can offer so much more by doing something else.

I am a elementary special eduction teacher and I am seeking a new career path outside of teaching. I am having trouble narrowing down my search to look in a specific area. When I search on line many of the posts I find are not current for suggestions or resources for special education teacher. Are there any resources out there for special education teachers who would like to use their skills in other capacities?

Hi Kimberly — You’ll definitely want to check out the book Roadmap and do some self-discovery exercises. Here’s the link to the book: http://amzn.to/1ZDb9FI. I believe there was a special education teacher example in there!

[…] to another edition of “Reader Questions”! Here’s a questions from Terry that he left on the 50+ Jobs for Former Teachers link roundup. Do you have a question? Leave a comment on this post or contact […]

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